


Birds of a Feather

by AuraSweet13



Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Hinted at sex in the last chapter, Non Consensual Daemon Touching, Seriously I think this might be angstier than the entire episode put together., So much angst, but nothing of the actual act
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-06 14:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10336878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuraSweet13/pseuds/AuraSweet13
Summary: Their daemons settle after their parents are killed./Basically 'Zal Bin Hasaan', with daemons thrown in.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, for anyone unfamiliar with the concept, a daemon is something from Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. They are an animal manifestation of your soul. Children's daemons can change shape, but when you reach puberty, your daemon settles into only one form.
> 
> However, if a child experiences a great tragedy, their daemon can settle far earlier than they're supposed to. Touching another person's daemon is considered taboo unless you have an extremely strong bond with them, whether that be a romantic bond or a platonic or familial one.
> 
> Now, onto daemons.  
> Samar's is a Common Raven called Altair  
> Shahin's is a Hoopoe called Kyra.  
> Levi's is a Golden Eagle called Olesia.

Both their daemons settle after their parents are killed.

Altair, who used to favour brightly coloured, fluffy, four-legged animals, becomes a sleek black raven, and Kyra, who used to favour reptiles, settles into a fluffy orange bird that later research on both their parts would reveal to be a hoopoe.

After that, they're rarely found apart. That includes Altair and Kyra, but it isn't just limited to each other. At any given moment, Altair can be found settled comfortably on Shahin's shoulder, while Kyra chooses to perch on Samar's head, as if they've been doing that their whole lives.

And in a way, they have. From the moment Shahin and Kyra are born, Samar and Altair are always close by. Altair always takes small forms and cuddles up against Shahin's other side. And when Shahin starts to get older, Kyra seeks Samar out and curls up on her feet as a puppy, or nestles in her thick hair as a small mouse.

Given the Earth-shattering event that they have both lived through, it isn't surprising to anyone in their immediate family that their daemons have settled, even if Shahin is only nine and daemons don't usually settle until puberty. There are always exceptions, however-like people who suffer an unspeakable trauma.

Even as they get older, though they can't do so in public, Kyra and Altair are as much an extension of Samar and Shahin as the other. The four of them are so closely connected, they may well be one being altogether.

____

When Samar is eighteen, she's approached by Mossad and asked if she wants to join them. She almost says no, that she can't leave Shahin. But a brief nip on her earlobe from Altair, his calming presence telling her _Think about this. We could get justice for our parents. We could find ways to protect Shahin and Kyra, our aunts and uncles and cousins. We could make **a difference** , Samar. _stops her in her tracks.

Well, she can't argue with that logic, probably because it's technically her own.

She accepts.

____

Leaving is much harder than she thinks it will be. The reactions of her aunts are bad enough, their daemons practically smothering Altair with affection, while they cuddle her in a similar fashion. She doesn't tell them, any of them, what she's really going to do, just frames it like she's going to get a higher education; it's not a total lie. Her cousins and uncles are sincere but detached enough that it makes her feel like she can breathe again, their daemons lightly and affectionately touching their snouts to Altair's head.

Shahin and Kyra's reactions almost break their resolve to leave completely. "You can't leave us." Shahin murmurs, sounding more like five than fourteen.

"We won't ever leave you, not really." She speaks in the same fashion, drawing him close. Altair makes the short jump to his shoulder, and Kyra does the same with her, burying her beak into Samar's dark hair, like usual. "We'll see each other again before we know it."

____

'Before we know it' is far longer than either of them anticipated.

____

The year is 2009. Samar is in Pishin investing a grisly bombing that took the lives of 41 people. Seeing all of their bodies, sans daemons of course, is incredibly unsettling, and she unconsciously clings to Levi, aware of Altair shifting closer to Olesia.

She takes a couple brief moments to glance at the daemons, the slight mingling of brown and black a comforting sight for her to see.

And she needs that comfort, especially now.

Especially upon seeing a list with the names of the deceased and their daemons.

Especially when she sees _Shahin Navabi-Kyra-Hoopoe_.

Altair lets out a chilling, broken caw, and her facade cracks. Sinking to her knees, tears start to flow, and they don't stop for what feels like forever.

Eventually, they do stop. And though each day that passes makes the loss hurt less, she still feels it, like someone has physically ripped Altair away from her and left a gaping hole within her where he should be.

For their own sanity, they move on.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ressler's daemon is Caedmon, a Kirk's dik-dik.

The year is 2015. Samar and Altair are with a small yet close-knit task force working on cases given to them by Raymond Reddington, of all people, with his vividly coloured, and unsettling, Tokay gecko daemon.

Though they still do occasional missions for Mossad, she chooses not to tell the task force about those. They're need to know, anyway, and no one on the task force needs to know about them.

It takes a while, but eventually they come to trust her. Which is good, because she has no intention of betraying any of them.

When they get that video, when they watch Michael Hastings deliver his message only to get shot in the head by a virtually unseen assailant, his pretty Irish setter daemon disappearing in a flash of gold dust, Samar feels sick, and she claps a hand over her mouth as Altair flutters up from her shoulder, visibly unsettled. She nods as Ressler tells her to call her Mossad contacts, to get everything they have on Zal Bin Hasaan, his tiny dik-dik daemon right by his heels.

____

Several things happen once they get to Sellinger Power that turn the world as Samar and Altair know it on its head.

 _One_. Levi and Olesia and Singer and Callista-a sweet Bengal cat, come back into her life. Altair doesn't hesitate upon seeing them and, long before she's in Levi's arms again, Altair and Olesia are taking off into the sky, making sure to keep close by the two of them. The familiar sight of the brown and black mingling makes Samar's heart ache as she hugs Levi tightly. And then she moves over to hug Singer, aware of Callista batting playfully at Altair as he dodges her swipes.

But though she wants nothing more than to bask in the fact that they are by her side again, she knows they're here for business, not recreation or pleasure.

So they get straight to work after the reunions are finished.

 _Two._ Ressler has Hasaan in his sights, his daemon a snarling leopard that Ressler's Caedmon is no match for in terms of speed, only to trigger a trip wire and make an opportunity for Hasaan to get away.

 _Three._ There are a handful of more hostages than just the five that were taken from Lazarum Systems International. Their daemons are all shaken and scared, a little on the skinny side but overall unscathed.

 _Four._ By the time Samar navigates her way around the mess of large cages, most of them have been freed. Except for a young man wearing a thin red cardigan over his striped shirt. He has a small amount of stubble on his face, but other than the cursory, initial glance, she doesn't pay much attention to him.

Until she catches a glimpse of black on his wrist, a flash of orange fluttering up from the bottom of the cage.

A bird tattoo not too different from her own, and an orange Hoopoe daemon. In one painful, instantaneous flash, she knows who this young man is.

 _Five._ "Shahin." She breathes, at the same time Altair, who so rarely speaks around other humans, gets out "Kyra?"

It takes man and daemon a little while to turn and face her and Altair, but the second they do, Shahin speaks. "Sister?" And Kyra **_launches_** herself into Samar's arms and climbs up onto her shoulder, while Altair flies to rest on Shahin's shoulder.

If anyone around them has a problem with the daemons interacting with humans that aren't their own, no one says a word.

Kyra's beak feels achingly familiar as it nestles in Samar's hair, and it takes everything she has not to break down right then and there. "We need to get them medical help." Samar says after what feels like hours, but has probably only been minutes.

Those words snap everyone out of the trance they'd seemed to be in seeing Samar and Shahin together, and the group heads out to the main area of the building to do just that.

____

Samar sets Kyra as close to Shahin as she can, though she's loath to let her go. Six years. It's been six years since Samar had seen the DNA report with their names on it, and it's been far longer than that since she's felt Kyra's beak in her hair.

Altair comes back to her shoulder and she reluctantly walks back to stand at the top of the entrance steps. Questions race through their heads.

How is it possible? How did they survive the Pishin bombing, when no one else had?

It's impossible to take their eyes off them, especially after six years of thinking they were dead.

The only thing that brings them back to the present, is the feeling of Levi's hand on her shoulder. Finally, they do turn away, and join Levi, Ressler and Singer to discuss what to do. She half listens to Levi explain that all of the hostages they picked up not five minutes ago are too young to be Hasaan, and then she offers up her opinion.

"We need to get the hostages somewhere safe, start taking their statements." It takes everything she has not to look back at Shahin and Kyra, lying in the ambulance. "They're our best chance at finding Hasaan."

Levi brings up their old facility in Georgetown, and Ressler agrees. Singer, Levi and Ressler all walk off, but Samar stays where she is, turning back to look at Shahin. Altair shifts on her shoulder, making himself more comfortable. Pulling out her phone, she calls the number of the one person she knows would know anything about this.

Though she wants nothing more than to let him have it for not telling her, she resists. Besides, it doesn't seem like he knows much about the situation, either-that, or he's just really good at pretending. "If Hasaan is in the country, he was smuggled in like contraband. I'll phone a friend, see if I can find the rum-runner he hired." He says, no trace of his usual smugness whatsoever in his voice.

Figuring that's the end of the conversation, Samar hits the 'End call' button on her phone at the same time Ressler calls out for her to hurry and catch up. Reluctantly, she turns away from Shahin and Kyra, and as she breaks into a jog in the direction of Ressler, Altair takes to the sky.

They have work to do.


	3. Chapter 3

The ride to the safe house in Georgetown is silent. Altair remains perched on her shoulder, while Caedmon lounges on the floor of the vehicle next to the pedals.

As soon as Ressler parks, Samar barely waits for the car to come to a stop before she's getting out, Altair by her side as per usual. His closeness has always been a comfort to her, but that's especially true now.

In 2012, after Daniel's killed, after she's put in the hospital for close to six months, her and Altair make the decision to break off from the Hasaan task force, breaking things off with Levi in the process.

It's only been three years since she struck out on her own, but in that particular moment, it feels like an eternity.

How can she face them after she ran like a coward?

 _Because we don't have a choice._ Altair supplies. _We owe it to the Lazarum hostages, to Shahin and the others who were all taken and held captive by Hasaan, to catch him and end his reign of terror._

She nods. And with that thought in her head, she enters the building.

____

 _Sometimes, people are entirely too easy to manipulate._ Shahin thinks as he's driven in an ambulance to the Georgetown safe house, the home of the list he'd been after for years now. Kyra makes an affirmative sound as she curls closer to him. It has been almost too easy to convince them that he's a helpless, shaken victim, with a little acting on Kyra's part, and a large cage (that he has the keys to, he might add).

The one variable he never puts any thought into, the one that basically throws a wrench into his entire plan, is the appearance of his sister, Samar, and her daemon Altair.

He thinks back to years ago, when she told him and the rest of their family she was going elsewhere to seek higher education for herself. When what she really meant is 'Going to join up with Mossad, defect to Israel and betray my country'.

What a joke.

Still, he can't help but admit, even to himself, that he's at least a little happy to see her again, to feel Altair's head rubbing against his cheek.

She is not a part of the plan. But, of course, he can't very well tell her that she can't stick around without revealing his entire plan. And if he does that, it'll be over before it begins.

 _So don't tell them._ Kyra, who has grown hard and manipulative, just like him, in the years since Samar left, urges. _They made their choice, and now we have to follow through with ours. We can't let anything stop us now, not even Samar and Altair._

He knows this. But, he also knows that if he's the one who ends up having to put a bullet in her head, it's going to hurt far more than he could ever have expected.

____

When Samar, Altair, Ressler and Caedmon go into Box One to talk to Shahin and Kyra, Samar feels like her heart is in her throat. She doesn't want to hear about what Shahin endured. But she knows they need to hear it, considering she spent six years thinking he died in a bombing that killed everyone else.

And wasn't it her who said that the hostages were their best chance at finding Hasaan?

Samar hasn't even sat down before Kyra is flying to sit on her other shoulder, making it look like she has two daemons instead of one. Once she does, however, Kyra hops down into her lap, and Altair flies the short distance to land on the table, within touching distance of Shahin. She watches as Shahin's hand reaches out to brush lightly from Altair's head, down his back.

With her fingers lightly combing through the familiar pale orange feathers, and Shahin's hand still running down Altair's back, Samar listens to him recount how he escaped and what he's been up to before being captured by Hasaan.

Her heart breaks for them, and she cuddles Kyra close, relishing in the feel of her soft feathers against her cheek, feeling the heart that Kyra shares with Shahin beating against her chest.

 _At least we have them back now._ Altair says later. And both of them make a vow, then and there, to do whatever it takes to keep it that way.

____

Samar and Altair barely register anything except the sight of Shahin on the cameras, talking to one of the other Mossad agents, ear buds in her ears. She barely registers Ressler saying he has a line on Keen.

"I can't leave him. He's my brother, I need to stay close." She murmurs, almost apologetic. Almost, but not quite.

For one split second, she worries that Ressler won't give her a choice, will force her to go with him.

To her pleasant surprise, he doesn't. He just places his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze that makes her toes curl the slightest bit in her boots. "I understand. I'll call." Then he walks out, and woman and daemon turn back to the laptop screen.

In hindsight, perhaps they should've gone with Ressler and Caedmon.

Maybe doing so would've prevented all of what transpired afterwards.


	4. Chapter 4

Samar feels like she's going to be sick as she hangs up with the State Department. Thankfully, mercifully, that doesn't happen. But the thought of Shahin being deported, of never seeing him again, makes her want to do whatever she can to stop it.

Which is why she puts in a request to grant him political asylum.

Throughout all of this, Altair stays as close by her as he physically can without merging into her body.

Swallowing, she heads back to Box One, Altair flying on ahead of her, stopped by the black curtain that Samar easily pulls back to enter. He looks up as she enters, Kyra chirping happily.

She tries to compose herself enough to speak. "I just got off the phone with the State Department. You entered the country illegally, so the American Government intends to deport you." The words nearly choke her on the way up.

To his credit, Shahin remains calm as Kyra walks forward and nestles herself against Samar's hand. "The U.S. is not my home. If the Americans want to send me back to England..."

She cuts him off before she can lose her nerve. "No. The U.K. Home Office is denying your return. Your status there was also illegal, so..." She takes in another deep breath, never taking her eyes off him. Altair flies from her shoulder to Shahin's in one smooth movement. "they're filing papers to send you back to Iran."

The fear on his face has her struggling to hold onto her composure, and she strokes her fingers almost idly over Kyra's feathers in an attempt to calm herself down. "That's...Samar, they will kill me."

She reaches out to take his hands, careful not to squish Kyra in doing so. "I've already put in a request to grant you political asylum. I _won't_ lose you again." Her voice wavers slightly, and she prays that he can't hear it.

She watches him look down at their joint hands. Altair flies from his shoulder down to rest on their hands briefly, and Kyra joins him, the two birds pressed so close together they almost look like one bird, a mix of pitch black and pale orange. As different as night and day.

(Another warning sign they don't register until it's far, _far_ too late.)

____

Samar and Altair barely have time to wonder what Red means when he says that Hasaan is there in the building, how is that possible? Levi and Olesia cleared them all, before there's a loud, almost deafening explosion from the other room. If it's that loud to them, and they're in the other room, Samar can only imagine how loud it is for the people actually in the room.

She tries to duck for cover, only to slip on the debris and fall. Pain shoots through her side, and Altair goes sprawling a small ways away from her. She can tell right away that nothing's broken, she'd know if anything was. Overall, she's mostly stunned. Altair scrambles over to her and presses himself as tightly against her stomach as he can. Her ears are ringing and she can barely focus.

 _What the hell is going on?_ Altair's voice enters her thoughts, warm and alive and she feels relief despite it all. She doesn't speak out loud. Not when she can hear gunshots and angry sounding words, not when she can see Levi unconscious a little ways off from her. She removes her gun from its holster, as Altair presses against her heart. Slowly, she makes her way out of the room, crawling on the ground, and Altair moves to her back so her movements don't accidentally crush him under her. The debris scrapes her arms the slightest bit, and if she wasn't so focused on not getting shot, she knows she'd wince.

But she doesn't get far before the assailants-the other hostages they'd found with Shahin, her and Altair will note later with a twinge of fear-are coming into the room she's in.

Instantly, she plays dead, Altair shifting off her back to lay beside her, doing the same.

But they remain unnoticed, somehow, and once it's safe, safer anyway, Samar crawls forward an inch or two more before getting to her feet, and Altair stays in the air with her. The pair decides on going the opposite way the not-hostages are going.

They only have one thought between the two of them: To get to Shahin and Kyra, make sure they're safe.

____

When the Lazarum employees die, when they're _executed,_ a cloud of golden dust swirls around them, carried by the wind, and the anguish combined between the two of them nearly suffocates her.

Samar and Altair are no strangers to death, sure, but this is going past even their comfort zone.

Hearing the approach of one of the men, the soft, chilling laughter of his hyena daemon, Samar immediately runs to duck behind the piece of furniture that's farthest from sight, a blue-cushioned chaise with gold edging, and the smallest space for her to be able to look through if she needs to. Altair is right beside her. She gets on her hands and knees to make herself as small and invisible as possible, and Altair rests on the floor next to her right hand. She can barely breathe as the strange man approaches the curtain that Shahin is sitting behind.

Does he know what's happening? Have they heard the explosion?

Samar gets ready to defend her brother if she needs to, Altair moving to her shoulder as they peer over the top of the chaise.

As it turns out, they don't need to defend him from anything.

As it turns out, the reality is much worse.

"Hasaan." She hears the other man say, and she feels cold all over.

Shahin's sweet, familiar face hardens, turns into something foreign to her, alien. Something neither of them have ever seen before.

Something evil.

He rises from the chair and walks to the 'door', for lack of a better word as the man whose name she doesn't know tells him they have ten minutes before the building is surrounded.

But it's Shahin's words that stop them dead in their tracks. "That's all we need. Where's my sister?" And as he leaves the room with the other man, Kyra, soft, gentle Kyra, looks far more terrifying than Samar had ever thought it was possible for her to look.

Her earlier words ring in her mind.

_One day he was my brother, he was young and vibrant. The next..._

Altair finishes her thought as they duck back behind the chaise.

_The next, he was a monster._


	5. Chapter 5

Shahin Navabi doesn't care for anyone in the room at the moment. Hell, if his partners, for lack of a better word, piss him off, he's liable to shoot them dead, too.

The only person in the world who still matters to him, is not in the room.

And since he's pretty sure the others would tell him if they'd shot and killed his sister- _They wouldn't dare shoot her, not without your permission,_ Kyra tells him-that means she's still in the building somewhere.

This poses a problem for their plan, for his plan.

But he doesn't show it.

Instead, for the time being, he focuses on the man in the chair; on the Bengal cat daemon sitting in his lap.

"All this time and money and manpower spent to find and kill me. How many agents are assigned to this task force? I want their names and assignments. I want that list." He cocks and then brings the pistol up to the back of the man's neck and holds it there.

To the man's credit, he shows no signs of fear. "I can't help you."

 _Well, then, you're useless to us._ Kyra says for Shahin's ears only as he pulls the trigger. His daemon vanishes in a cloud of gold dust and the woman sitting beside the table gasps out loud, her collie daemon whimpering and shaking ever so slightly.

"Now I think I need to find someone who can." He walks the step and a bit to where the woman who had gasped is sitting, and points the gun at her head. "You. Up." He uses the gun to urge her into the chair, while her daemon stays by her feet. "Up, up, up!" And as she sits down, he says one word. "Yes."

Kyra may not look threatening, but he knows just what she's capable of.

"Who is your O.I.C?" He points the gun at her and raises his voice. "Your officer in charge, now!" Kyra flies a little ways off his shoulder and caws threateningly, and the collie's whimpers intensify.

The man who was with Samar when they 'found' him, speaks up, his golden eagle daemon sitting annoyingly regal and proud on his shoulder. "It's me."

____

Samar's phone shakes in her fingers as she presses the number for Red's speed dial and holds the phone to her ear.

To her immense relief, he doesn't bombard her with questions like her colleagues on the task force might have.

Which, in all honesty, is probably why the thought of calling them about this never even occurred to her. "Tell me what's happening." His calm, rational voice in turn calms her down, at least a little. Enough that she's able to speak without her voice shaking.

"My brother, they're calling him Hasaan." She moves from her hiding place to look out the window, and Altair is beside her the entire time. She half wants Reddington to say this is complete news to him, that he hasn't known about this.

But, of course, she should know by now not to underestimate the Concierge of Crime. "I'm sorry, Samar, I'm getting to the truth a little too late." He sounds genuinely remorseful about that.

None of this makes any sense to her, and she speaks as Altair starts combing his beak through her hair, like he used to do years ago when they were young, after their parents died. The gesture is meant to help soothe her, and much like it did back then, it works now, too. But only a little. "The Lazarum hostages have all been executed. I don't understand, if my brother is Hasaan, why would he risk an attack like this?" She tries to breathe, tries to relax her body and calm her breathing. There's still a chance that Shahin or one of his henchmen can come up here and catch them. And if that does happen, she knows that her head needs to be clear if she wants to stand any chance of holding her own against them.

But, as usual, Reddington is one step ahead. However, instead of Reddington speaking, a silky, unfamiliar, feminine voice speaks up. "For the list. The list of Mossad agents and their informants working around the world to find an execute Hasaan." Shock sets in when she realizes that she must be speaking to his daemon right now, and Altair's beak halts in her hair.

"That list is ISOO secure. It's not available electronically. There's only a hard copy." Once they've gotten over the shock, Altair resumes his previous actions in her hair.

"Where?" Red speaks this time.

A metaphorical light-bulb flicks on over her head. "The covert source record room."

Red and his daemon, she makes a mental note to ask about her name later, if she makes it out of this alive, don't miss a beat. "If that's where the list is, that's where Hasaan is going. In a few minutes, half the federal agents in Washington will have that building surrounded. Your only job for now is to say alive."

 _But how many of our colleagues will Hasaan kill in order to get to that list?_ The thought crosses both their minds, and in that moment, despite how outnumbered and outmanned she is, she knows what she has to do. And it's not just 'stay alive'. "I have to stop him." She hangs up the phone and runs from the room, Altair once again lifting off her shoulder into the air as she puts her phone away and readies her gun. She moves quickly and silently down the many flights of stairs towards the CSRR, thankful that all of her years with Mossad, and this particular task force, means she has one advantage Shahin-Hasaan, she has to forcibly correct herself-and his men don't.

She knows this place almost like the back of her hand.

____

She reaches the CSRR to find the clock concealing the safe still closed, and breathes a sigh of relief. But the sound of an angry, unfamiliar voice makes her hurry out of the room into the adjoining corridor. She peers around the corner the barest amount to see a different man from the one who went to get Hasaan basically forcing Levi into the room, holding his hands behind his head. The man's daemon, a large Siberian tiger, is snarling at Olesia, who remains impressively unfazed by the whole ordeal.

But Samar and Altair know Levi and Olesia well enough to know when they're putting up bravado, and this is one of those times.

"We got the location from your men in Jordan, all we need is the code." The man spits, throwing open the clock to reveal the safe. He wears a navy blue-grey shirt under a plaid cardigan.

She feels a deep ache in her chest when Levi speaks, feels Altair shift uneasily on her shoulder as she lifts the gun and points it at the second stranger of the day. "I'll never give it to you. My people are prepared to die first."

"So be it. Down!" The man instructs, gesturing with his gun. She watches as Levi sinks to his knees, Olesia a fixture on his shoulder. "We'll get into your precious safe with or without you."

Samar doesn't think, she just shoots. The shot is perfect, and as the man goes down, his daemon disappears. Then she enters the room. "They'll be coming, we have to go." But, to her surprise, as Olesia lifts off his shoulder, he doesn't make a move to leave. Instead, he grabs the man's gun and puts it into his waistband, then stands up. "What are you doing?" She asks, confusion lacing her voice. _They always did have a terrible sense of self preservation._ She thinks dryly.

 _Exactly. Why do you think **we** got along with the two of them so well? _ Altair responds almost instantly, and if the situation they're in was a little less volatile, a little less dangerous, she might choose to give in to the urge to smile.

"They got into the building. They'll find their way into the safe." Levi responds, punching in the code to open the safe and grabbing the first half of the large list.

"We have to destroy the list before they do." Olesia's voice is clear like a bell, so achingly familiar it makes both Samar and Altair ache for a simpler time.

"We're all clear." Altair whispers, and she's thankful to have him to help be her eyes when things get rough as she moves forward to grab the other half of it. She follows Levi to the metal wastebasket, and Altair stays planted firmly on her shoulder as they watch Levi use a familiar blue lighter to set the list aflame. The only hard copy left. _We have to do this._ Altair's voice is like cool spring water as he shifts closer and nestles his beak into her hair, and sure, she knows that, but that doesn't mean it hurts any less.

"I thought you quit." She murmurs as the two of them watch the documents go up in flames.

Olesia shifts on his shoulder as he looks at her. "Yeah, I did, but then you left me, so..."

 _I missed them so much._ Altair says, and she finds that she can relate. Wholeheartedly. Giving a 'fair enough' almost smile to Levi, she reaches for his hand, giving it a brief squeeze before sliding her fingers through his own and holding firm. His thumb rubs over her knuckle for the briefest moment, and she barely holds back a shiver. Altair, however, can't quite manage that, but on a crow it looks like his feathers have puffed up briefly.

He looks from their joined hands back up to her face, and the look in his eyes knocks the breath from her lungs. Before she can really register what's happening, he's closing the distance between them, cupping her face and kissing her, though her eyes slide shut just before his lips touch hers, almost like she's been waiting for him to kiss her. Though she melts into it, and her eyes are closed, she can feel the pleasure coming from Altair as Olesia rubs her head against his, and he returns the gesture in kind.

When he breaks the kiss, he's still cupping her face, and Samar is so unbelievably content that she can almost forget what a dangerous situation they're in.

Almost, but not quite.

The sound of a gunshot breaks Samar and Altair from their dazed, giddy stupor, especially as Levi pushes her away and falls back against the desk, a red spot quickly blooming on his shirt.

She gasps as he does so, and turns her attention to the entrance of the room, as Shahin, the man with the hyena daemon, who smiles even more wickedly now, and two other men she remembered letting out from their cages at Sellinger Power.

Well, if she **thought** she was outnumbered before, she _definitely_ was now.


	6. Chapter 6

Samar eyes each of the men warily, not letting her eyes linger on Shahin too long, while Altair lets out a low caw. Levi falls from leaning against the desk to laying on the floor, Olesia limp beside him, but alive.

Samar watches Hyena Man's gaze go to the metal wastebasket as his daemon snarls at them. He kicks the basket out of the way. "She's burned the documents." He says derisively. "There's almost nothing left." The only thought between either Samar or Altair in that moment is stopping the blood flow, so she moves forward, taking off her small forest green jacket as she goes, pressing it to the wound, while Altair flies down from her shoulder to rest beside Olesia, to hopefully give her comfort. But if they think she's to blame, why shoot Levi and not her?

 _Because of who our brother is, probably._ Altair speaks up, if only in her head.

"Samar, what did you do?" Shahin asks, and his tone is so harsh and bitter it makes her flinch. She can almost feel Kyra's beady eyes boring into her skull.

She says nothing to him, to any of them, because she has nothing _to_ say.

"Hasaan, we have to go." An unfamiliar voice, if the location of his voice is any indication, it's the bald man who entered with Shahin and Hyena Man, speaks up. He has a small mongoose daemon. "They have agents preparing to enter."

Her heart pounds violently in her chest at those words and Altair shares a quick glance with her. A few more minutes, and this will all be behind them.

A few more minutes, and they'll be safe and sound.

"All our plans, and we're left with _nothing_." She jolts at the feeling of Hyena Man's hand coming down on her bare shoulder in an almost slap, pulling her back ever so slightly.

But that's not what stops her dead in her tracks, makes her scared to even breathe wrong.

At the same time her human grabs Samar's shoulder, his daemon lunges forward, and snatches Altair up in her jaws. Samar can't help the cry of (mostly) fear, but also a little pain, that escapes her. She's seen the size of those jaws. One precise bite, and she's a goner. Even just the knowledge that his daemon is holding hers in its jaws is enough to chill her to the bone. "Kill her and be done with it. Or better yet, let Desdemona do it." His tone is vicious and, desperate, she looks over her shoulder at Shahin.

After everything the two of them have been through together, will he really let his lackey's daemon kill her?

Kyra almost looks alarmed, but surprisingly, or maybe not so much, this brings her no comfort. "No." Shahin says, and Samar exhales a short, sharp breath. "She's Mossad. Information we need is in her head." As he says this, Hyena Man lets her go, rather roughly, but his daemon is still holding Altair in her jaws.

They're not safe yet. Not by a long shot.

The only thing keeping her calm right now, she suspects, is Levi's warm brown eyes looking up at her in concern, his hands on top of hers. "He will be dead within the hour." Shahin continues, and it feels like she's been doused in ice water.

Altair is terrifyingly silent, but she knows he's not dead; if that were the case, she'd be dead too. She keeps her eyes locked on Levi, and him and Olesia look right back at her. "We take her with us." Shahin's voice is so detached, so unfamiliar to her, and she can't fathom how he's changed so drastically. Baldy and Hyena Man haul her up, away from Levi, bleeding out on the floor, Olesia's feathers starting to dull ever so slightly with the loss of blood, and out of the room. Desdemona lopes along at her human's side, Altair still held in her jaws.

Well, that's one way to keep her docile. A pretty damn effective one, if she does say so herself.

 _Altair, please say something._ She thinks desperately, silently reaching out. The bond is still there, thankfully. But, in their whole life, he's never been this quiet. Not with her, anyway.

 _I'm okay, Samar._ Altair responds, and she bites the inside of her cheek **just** hard enough to stop herself from sobbing in relief. _Well, as okay as I can be, given the situation._

That'll have to be enough for the moment. The feeling of cold steel on her wrist shocks her out of her relief, and she looks down to see handcuffs have been slapped onto her wrists. "Just to make sure you don't try anything, dollface." Baldy speaks from her right side.

She wants to tell him exactly where he can stuff dollface, and only the fact that Altair is still clasped in Desdemona's jaws stops her.

For a long moment, she finds herself hoping they'll get lost in the maze of rooms and stairs that is the Mossad Georgetown safehouse. All she needs is to buy the agents enough time to find her, to find them, and stop all this.

Unfortunately, she's never been that lucky.

A sound of discomfort escapes her at the sudden change in lighting, and her eyes squeeze shut. The fresh air feels nice on her flushed skin, though. When she opens her eyes, her gaze falls on a white truck.

Her heart drops into her stomach. The agents aren't going to get there in time. The wave of despair she feels is stronger than it should be, but she suspects that Altair doesn't have much reason to keep hoping for something good to happen when he's clasped in the jaws of a much larger predator. The slight pressure alleviates as Desdemona opens her jaws, but before Altair can fly back to her, Hyena Man is plucking him from Desdemona's jaws, holding him firmly in both hands.

She cries out again, though this sound is more a groan than an actual cry, both at the pressure and the sheer feeling of **_wrongwrongwrong_** of him manhandling her daemon. The world tilts sharply on its axis, at least it feels that way, and the only thing stopping her from collapsing to her knees is Baldy's hand gripping her arm. "No, please." Samar gets out in spite of herself, and her pride, not that she thinks it'll do much.

"Sorry." Hyena Man says, not sounding sorry at all. "But Desdemona was getting tired of holding him, so we need to put him somewhere more convenient." In the hands of the third man, she sees what looks like a wooden box, just small enough for a housecat sized daemon.

Or a raven sized one.

There are several holes on both sides of the box, but they're not big enough to escape through. They're just big enough for the occupant to breathe.

"Don't worry, though," Hyena Man's tone is casual, like he's discussing the weather as he carries her limp, shivering daemon over to the box and tosses him inside like he's nothing more than a piece of trash. A slight pain shoots through her as he hits the floor of the box, and the small door is closed, hiding him from her sight. "be a good girl, and you _might_ get him back when we get where we're going."

The thought of fighting them left her head the moment Desdemona snatched him up in her jaws, but as startling as that had been, at least she could see him then.

Now she can't, and she feels even more lost, even more hopeless.

Shahin takes the box from Hyena Man and sets it carefully on the floor on the side with the farthest window in the back of the truck. He doesn't say a word, but as she watches, his hand runs absently, almost reverently, over the top and left side of the box. Kyra hops down from Shahin's shoulder to rest on top of it, and somehow, that makes everything hurt worse. Then he climbs in and sits on the left side, his feet spread on either side of the box holding Altair. Kyra hasn't moved from her perch atop it.

Baldy and Hyena Man grab her, and she struggles a little. "I can get in myself." She protests.

Shahin shakes his head. "We can't take that risk, Samar." He meets her eyes, and she has to fight every impulse in her body that's telling her to look away.

Instead, she meets his gaze head on. "You have my daemon _trapped in a little wooden box_ , Shahin. Where could I possibly go?"

Something shifts in his expression, and at least Kyra has the decency to look ashamed-how sincere it is, she doesn't know. "Let her go. She can get in on her own."

They do, and she sways ever so slightly on her feet. But she doesn't fall. Swallowing hard, she walks towards the truck. It's a struggle with her hands bound, but she manages to climb up into the truck. She slides over next to him, so close to the box that she can almost touch it, and straps in. Baldy gets in on her other side, his mongoose jumping into his lap.

Samar swore years ago that she'd never shrink herself for another person. But right now, that's all she wants to do.

So that's exactly what she does. She makes herself as small as she can, focusing on the pulse she can feel inside, that lets her know Altair is still alive and okay, as the truck starts up, being driven by his other henchman, while Hyena Man sits in the passenger seat.

They pull away from the safe house, and Samar just focuses on trying to breathe.

 _We'll get through this, Altair._ She thinks, uncertain if he can even hear her. He's not far away, but it feels like he's on another planet.

They'll get through this, somehow.

They _have_ to.


	7. Chapter 7

Samar doesn't know how long they've been driving for, she has no way to see the clock. She supposes there's one up front, but she's too weak from the forced isolation, from Altair being held, grabbed, by a virtual stranger, to consider looking.

He hasn't said a word to her since he was tossed into the box. Neither has Shahin. Kyra sits on top of the box like a sentry. For the first time in her life, Samar feels like the little sister.

She jolts in spite of herself-she's far more jumpy without Altair by her side, she's noticed-as the truck goes over a pothole or a bump in the road, jolting the truck a little. No one else flinches.

She wants to ask where they're going, where they're taking her. But, she can't ask her captors. And she can't ask Shahin, either because, for all she knows, her captors speak Farsi, or understand it at the very least.

 

The truck stops, and she's hauled out by Baldy. Hyena Man holds the handle of the box. This time, though, Baldy lets her go, lets Shahin take her instead. Kyra hovers above her shoulder, like she wants to land on it.

"Don't you dare." She grits out, voice soft. "I don't want you touching me ever again." Kyra flinches as if Samar's slapped her, and honestly Samar almost wishes she had. As she flies back to Shahin's shoulder, Samar turns her attention to him, wracking her brain for words that could possibly pierce the armour he seems to have developed. "There's nothing noble about what you're doing, Shahin. Our parents would be ashamed."

Samar thinks of them in that moment, of their mother and father, of her elegant northern flying squirrel daemon, and of his vibrant Great green macaw daemon. There's no guarantee bringing up their parents will do anything other than infuriate him. But she's desperate. She has to try _something_.

As she's expecting, it doesn't even so much as faze him as he looks back at her. "Our parents had no shame. They were cowards." He faces forward again.

A wave of anger washes over her, and she very faintly hears Altair's voice in her thoughts, intermingled with her own. _You'd think he would know by now not to speak ill of the dead._ But all Shahin's words do for Samar, however, is prove just how naive he really is. "How can you say that? They died for speaking the truth." Shahin has no idea of the grisly scene that she'd stopped him from seeing all those years ago. He knows far less than he likes to pretend he does.

If their roles were reversed for even 24 hours, Samar's convinced he wouldn't be able to endure being in her shoes.

Shahin yanks her forward, causing her to stumble a little before she regains her footing. "You've been fooled." This time it's Kyra who speaks. Her voice is chillingly hard. "Turned your back on Iran, joined Mossad."

That's the last straw for her. "Shahin, they killed our parents!" She snaps, using both hers and Altair's helplessness at their situation, turning it into rage to fuel her own voice. Even the unpleasant sensation that comes with Hyena Man shaking the box the slightest bit doesn't dissipate the sheer amount of anger she feels.

"Our parents brought death upon themselves and we suffered for it!" Shahin returns, his anger just as prevalent and hot as her own.

(Just one more thing they have in common, it seems.)

He continues speaking. "They betrayed us, betrayed our country!" Shahin yanks her forward again, but this time, she's expecting it. This time, she doesn't stumble.

And then, a terrible thought enters her head, and everything makes awful, perfect sense.

"The Pishin bombing." She breathes. "It was you." Suddenly, she can't breathe all over again. It feels like someone is suffocating her, suffocating Altair. Of course, no one is, but it sure feels that way. God, how could she _possibly_ have missed all of the warning signs?

 _Because we didn't see any reason to suspect our little brother of being capable of that kind of atrocity._ Altair speaks up for the second time since being shoved in the box, and she clings to it, to him.

"That was the day I became the righteous warrior Zal." Shahin says, and the pride in his voice makes her stomach lurch, especially when she sees the way Kyra preens. He has no remorse. None whatsoever.

She doesn't know why this fact surprises her.

Her gaze is so focused on him, on them, that she isn't aware of anything else until the gunshot goes off. Baldy falls, and his daemon vanishes into golden dust. She reacts on instinct, ducking, dodging bullets-because she isn't sure if the person firing them is an ally or an enemy just yet-and by the time Hyena Man goes down, her only thought is getting to Altair, getting him out of that damned box. As she runs over to him, she finds an unfamiliar daemon sitting on it, almost like it's on guard for her. The daemon is a chinchilla. A man in a white t-shirt that she's never seen before gets her attention and holds up a couple of slim rods. Getting the hint, she holds her handcuffed wrists out to him, and within seconds, the handcuffs fall into his outstretched hands. The chinchilla scurries off the box, to the man's side, while Samar kneels by the box and wrenches open the lid.

A blur of black feathers launches out at her, and she holds him tighter than she ever has before now, clutching him to her chest.

Neither of them mind the slight sting of pain that comes with her grip. He burrows as close to her as he possibly can, and she almost starts crying right then and there, feeling his heart beat strong and steady against hers.

 _Samar._ He breathes into her thoughts, warm and smooth and familiar, and she vows she'll never let him go again. He hops from her arms to her shoulder, but he presses his head against her neck as she picks up Hyena Man's gun and rises to her feet, turning to face her saviour.

The one and only Raymond Reddington. He stands there, looking as immaculate and composed as ever. His daemon is much larger than she expects her to be, perched on his shoulder and slightly around his neck. She's a pale blue gecko, with vivid orange spots, and eerie, unblinking yellow-green eyes that she remembers all too well from their first meeting.

She's seen the head of his daemon before, but this is Samar's first time seeing all of her.

As she stands there, Hyena Man's gun clutched tightly in her hands, she's all too aware of Baz's massive gray wolf daemon pinning Kyra to the ground, snarling at her. "According to legend," Red starts, his tone calm as ever. "a great and wise bird raised the young warrior, Zal, in her nest atop the highest peak of Damavand."

Samar doesn't know why he's telling this story again. She knows it, so does Shahin. It was their favourite story for their mother to tell them, though she's not sure if he even still remembers-or cares about, for that matter-that little tidbit.

But there has to be a reason. As absurd as they might seem sometimes, he always has a reason for telling the stories he does. "When he came of age, she gave him a plume of her radiant feathers to burn if he was ever in desperate need, and she would come to his aid." It's around this point that Samar realizes he hasn't looked at her once throughout this. Red's eyes are fixed on Shahin, almost like his daemon has a tendency to do. "Pity." His head cocks slightly to the side, and he doesn't sound sorry at all. "You seem to be fresh out of feathers."

"What do you want?!" Shahin snaps, causing Samar's brow to raise in surprise. So apparently Red's telling of the story has struck a nerve with him.

"Oh, another spin of the bottle in Melanie Reichmann's basement." Red responds without a shred of hesitation. Samar has no idea who Melanie Reichmann is, and frankly, she just isn't interested enough to ask. "But I'll settle for you."

She's too consumed with relief that Altair is back with her again. "What now?" She asks. Altair shifts only a little, but not enough to separate from where he's nestled his head against her neck. His feathers bring her an immense amount of comfort that she knows no other daemon on this Earth could ever give her.

"That's your decision." Red responds. She doesn't take her eyes off of him, and his don't leave hers, either. "You can turn him in, you know what'll happen. Rendition, hunger strikes, eventually death in whatever hellhole he's thrown into. Or you can give him to me. The best I can offer is death with a purpose."

Samar looks down slightly, and then towards Shahin, on his knees, gun to his head, his daemon still pinned by Baz's. The she turns her gaze back to Red's and, with some prodding from Altair, asks the question that she isn't entirely sure she wants to know the answer to. "Which is?"

He looks from Shahin to her. "Agent Keen's freedom."

Before she can speak, Shahin does, instead. "Sister." Instinctively, she looks over at him. Baz holds his head as he tries to turn it in her direction. "You swore to protect me."

Shahin and Kyra look so pitiful, so helpless, that big sister/maternal instinct she's had since their parents died threatens to rear its head again. But then she thinks back over everything he's done, just today alone, and finds that she cares far less about what happens to him. "I swore to protect my brother." Her voice shakes only the tiniest bit. "He died in Pishin." But as she turns back to face Red, her facade cracks. "Hasaan is all yours." Altair presses himself more firmly against her neck, ducking his head as her throat clogs with tears, her lips quiver, her eyes sting, and she quickly turns away to avoid the scrutiny of anyone who can see the desolation on her face. Altair nestles closer to her as the final pieces of the protective facade she put up for her own sanity fall away.

The two of them can count on one hand how many times they've broken down like this, and how many times they've done so in front of other people.

It takes a maybe a minute or so, if not less, for them to compose themselves enough to turn and face Reddington once more, but with how vulnerable they feel, it may well have been hours. She nods at Red and then walks away from the dock without so much as another glance in Shahin's or Kyra's direction.

 _I think, after this, we need to go home and sleep for a week straight, at least._ Altair thinks to her, and in spite of everything, the corners of her lips curl upwards ever so slightly.

Both of them know that won't be possible. Getting fully past this kind of betrayal...in all honesty, she's not even sure if that's possible. Not to mention their hectic work schedule.

But, at least they can take the rest of today to relax and try to recover from their ordeal.

 _One step at a time._ Altair whispers, and she gives and almost imperceptible nod of her head. _Fake it until we make it._

Because, if there's one thing the two of them know for a fact how to do, it's adapt and survive their current situation.


	8. Chapter 8

Samar doesn't speak for a while once she gets into the car, being driven by the man in the white shirt with the chinchilla daemon. She sits silently in the passenger seat, chilled to the bone in the absence of the green cardigan that she had used in an attempt to staunch the blood flow from Levi's chest.

Her heart aches anew as she thinks of him, of all of them.

Killed by Hasaan and his lackeys.

She can't help wondering: _If I hadn't told Ressler to let them be there when we took him down, would they still be alive?_

 _Sam, I understand what you're feeling right now._ Altair, ever the voice of reason, says from his fixed place on her shoulder. _I feel it, too. But if we continue to focus on what-ifs, we'll never be able to move on. At least call the Post Office, let them know you're okay._ She nods and, with shaking fingers, pulls her phone from her pocket, pressing the number of the Post Office on her speed dial.

"Agent Navabi?" Aram's voice should comfort her, but right now, his formality with her just makes the knot in her chest grow. She needs a friend right now, not a co-worker. Of course, she can't blame him, he likely doesn't know the full extent of what she's been through today. No one does, really, except for her and Altair. If she closes her eyes, she can almost see Aram sitting at his desk, phone to his ear; Jabi, his fluffy, friendly bumblebee daemon hovering just off his right shoulder.

The feeling of Altair's beak lightly butting against her neck reminds her that Aram's waiting for an answer. "Yeah, hi Aram. Sorry about that, got lost in thought for a bit."

"Not a problem." He responds, his voice calm, kind. "Are you okay?"

 _Not even close, Aram._ Samar thinks, knowing full well she can't tell him this. If she does, she knows she'll just keep pouring, and the chances of her stopping if that happens are virtually non-existent. So she steels herself. "Yeah, I'm okay." Her voice sounds almost like it usually does, and she ticks that off as a mental victory.

"Great!" His enthusiasm and genuine happiness make tears well up in her eyes again, and she lets Altair lightly brush them away with a wing. "So see you soon, then?"

"Yeah, absolutely." She responds. "I'm about 22 minutes out, I'll see you soon." Then she hangs up and leans against the window. The pane is mercifully cool on her reddened, tear-stained cheeks.

The man in the driver's seat doesn't try to make conversation with her, and she's grateful for that. But the flash of gray fur in her peripheral confuses her...until she hears what sounds like daemonspeak. The voice is light, feminine, and she realizes it must be the daemon of the man in the white t-shirt, whose name she still doesn't know. Trying to talk to Altair.

He shifts a little, ruffling his feathers slightly, but doesn't respond. Eventually, she gives up trying and goes back to her human's shoulder.

And then, the man speaks. "Do you, uh, need the heat turned up or anything?" His voice is deeper than she imagined it; not by much, though. In a way, he reminds her of Ressler. A tough looking man, with a small, innocent looking daemon.

She's tempted to say no, but she still feels cold all over, so she nods instead. "Yes, please. And thank you. Not just for this, but for helping me out back there."

The man nods as he reaches out to turn up the heat, and before she can stop it, her and Altair visibly shiver and inch closer to where the heat is coming from. "Of course." He briefly looks like he wants to say more, but he doesn't. And honestly, Samar doesn't trust herself to say anything else, scared of what will come out if she tries. Him asking her about the heat, her responding, that's a safe topic.

Everything else, the words on the tip of her tongue? Not so much.

As a result of that, the rest of the ride is spent in silence. But it's far less awkward now.

 

Walking into the Post Office after the ordeal she's just had is the most nerve-wracking thing she's done all day. She feels like every eye in the room is on her though, given how late it is, there aren't many eyes at all.

And since she doesn't know where Ressler is, it's as if herself and Altair have walked into a room full of strangers. Surely Aram and Jabi must be here, she'd just talked to him not long ago, but Samar can't see them anywhere. It just seems like a sea of unfamiliar faces right now, and Samar's had enough of those today to last her a life time.

The urge to turn and bolt back to the bright yellow lift, to get the hell out of there, nearly overwhelms her.

Instead, she lets Altair's calming aura wash over her, and the pair of them avoid the gazes of everyone as they duck into Ressler's old office, currently their office now that he's taken up residence-however temporary (and God do they hope it's only temporary)-in Cooper's office.

The first thing she does when they step foot into the office is reach up to take the black hair-tie out of her hair, probably with a little more force than is necessary, and it hurts, but she doesn't particularly care because right now she just needs to feel _something_ other than this anguish, this betrayal, this devastation currently wreaking havoc inside of her.

She clenches her fist and walks over to sit down in the chair behind the desk. Altair lands next to her hand as she reaches for a piece of paper and a pencil.

Without really thinking much about what she's doing, she starts to write, but Shahin's betrayal creeps into her mind, and it's only when the page tears that she snaps out of it.

After that, it's like something inside of her snaps. She bites her lip hard to stop a scream of anguish from escaping and drawing some very much unwanted attention from the people out there, crumpling up the paper violently, tearing it further in the process, and throws it across the room. Even in her grief induced state, the crumpled paper manages to hit the window with a dull 'thunk'. She doesn't feel better afterwards, though. In fact, she thinks she might actually feel worse.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" She whispers, resting her head on the desk, a feeling of embarrassment washing through her.

"Nothing." Hearing Altair's smooth voice in the room instead of just in her head is a little jarring, because it's such a rare occurrence. "You just lost your brother, whom you raised for a good part of your lives, who you killed to avenge, who betrayed you. Betrayed us." He hops closer and rests a foot on top of her hand. With her free hand, she reaches up to stroke her fingers down his back, and he keeps talking. "We need to remember them as they used to be, not as the monsters they became. I'm not saying that'll be easy, but it's doable. We can do this. Together."

Nodding her agreement, she gets up out of the chair and moves over to lean against the desk, glad she'd had the foresight to leave her bag here instead of taking it with her. From it, she pulls a photo, and Altair flies up to rest on her shoulder as they look at it, remembering simpler times.

This is how Ressler and Caedmon find them a couple of hours later.


	9. Chapter 9

Time blurs as Samar and Altair stay in that position, reminiscing not only over the memory of the picture in her hands, but of their childhood.

When she looks up and out, not only is it dark, not only has someone turned on the lamp in their office, but Ressler is looking at her through the window, Caedmon perched on his shoulder.

She can only imagine how she must look right now.

Swallowing, Samar sets the picture beside her and shifts a little, stiffened by the disuse of her limbs. Altair flies up briefly, stretching his wings, before settling back on her shoulder.

Ressler leans against the doorframe, hands sliding into his pockets, and Samar speaks right away. "I know you don't approve of what I did. Giving him to Reddington." She doesn't know what she expects, in all honesty. For him to get mad, to punish her for it.

But none of that happens. "Reddington saved your life. If giving him Hasaan was the price for that, I'd pay it twice over." He says, his tone earnest.

"Are you okay?" This is the first time Samar has heard Caedmon speak out loud.

Samar shakes her head. "It took me _years_ to mourn his loss." And she can't forget how the two of them almost hadn't survived losing them the first time. The breath she inhales and exhales is shaky as she rises from the desk and starts to move past him out the door. "Now I have to do it all over again."

"I spoke to the E.R." Ressler's words freeze her in her tracks. Her eyes squeeze shut, and she braces herself for the worst. Only Altair's head against her neck keeps her calm enough to focus on what he's saying. _Levi's dead. He has to be._ The toxic thought nearly knocks the breath from her chest. "Sounds like Levi's gonna make it." The exhale of her breath shatters the otherwise silent atmosphere of the room; at least, that's how it feels to her. "He seems like a good guy."

She smiles weakly. "He is." But she still can't bring herself to look at him. It's embarrassing, if she's being honest, that out of all the people who could've seen herself and Altair vulnerable, it just has to be Ressler.

If he notices, he doesn't comment. Just continues to speak. "I mean, this place, this job, it's...After Audrey died, I came to work the very next day." She stops, surprise flooding through her. Though he's been more open with her lately, not by much but some, this feels a bit too personal. She can only assume Audrey is an ex of his, like Levi is for her. "It's so easy to lose perspective, forget what really matters." His voice is softer than she's ever heard it, and she can hear faint hints of grief. A grief she can relate to.

She finally looks at him. Now it's her turn to ask that fateful question. "Are you okay?" Samar is aware of Altair asking Caedmon the same thing; at least she assumes it is-he's talking in daemonspeak.

Ressler looks ready to start crying, which is also a strange sight for her. He shakes his head, just barely. "I'm not so sure." In that moment, she has so much she wants to say to him. She wants to thank him, for trusting her enough with this to open up to her about it, for coming to check and see how she was doing.

But she says neither of those things. She faces forward, palms resting on her knees. What she says instead is "What really matters is this. Here. Now. Nothing else is guaranteed." She looks at him, and after a moment or so, he looks back at her.

It's their daemons who decide to close the small emotional gap between them. At some point during her conversation with Ressler, Altair has flown down from her shoulder to be closer to Caedmon, who has abandoned her perch on Ressler's shoulder, and the small deer moves closer until their sides are touching. Though daemons touching is not nearly as uncommon as a human touching another daemon, though she's experienced it several times, with her family, with Levi, the sheer lack of hesitation with which Altair lets Caedmon touch him, a black wing coming up to rest on her tiny body, sends a chill through her that's not at all unpleasant. Her breath hitches, and she swears she hears Ressler's hitch, too.

"Samar." Ressler's voice is exceptionally quiet now, barely above a whisper. "Do you...want to come back to my place tonight? So neither of us have to be alone?"

Samar nods. "I would, actually." The Post Office is virtually abandoned now, given the late hour, so no one is around to watch him walk with her towards the lift, their daemons sticking close beside one another, his fingers laced through hers.

 

Tomorrow, several things will happen to make Samar regret ever agreeing to spend the night at his place.

Tomorrow, Ressler and Aram will shatter her trust in a way that she won't expect.

Tomorrow, everything will be different.

But for now?

She lets Ressler draw her closer, draws him closer in return. Kisses him fervently, like he's the only thing keeping her grounded (in a way, he sort of is). She focuses on the feeling of his bare skin against hers, how warm and solid and alive he is, and _good_ it feels.

For now, it's only the two of them, and their daemons, who remain close throughout the entire act.

Ressler lets her be on top.

They don't touch each other's daemons, but let their daemons romp and nip at each other and play as they please, as they seek comfort and companionship with each other.

And by the time she falls asleep, wrapped in his arms, the only things she feels are safe, warm and unbelievably content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the story comes to an end. I must admit, not only am I immensely proud of this story, but I'm sad to see it end. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!


End file.
